Bitter Sweet Love

Dez wasn't just Jasmine's crush. A gargoyle Warden like Jas, he helped her come to terms with her destiny—fending off demons and maintaining the balance between good and evil. He was her everything…right until the moment he disappeared without a trace. It didn't help that Jas's father had just announced that she and Dez would one day be mated. Hard not to take that personally.
And now he's back, three years older, ten times hotter, ready to pick up exactly where they left off. But Jas isn't taking that risk again. Dez has seven days to meet all her conditions and earn back her trust. Seven days filled with terrifying danger and sweet temptation. Seven days to win her heart—or shatter it all over again...

Bitter Sweet Love is the prequel to the Dark Elements series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. This prequel didn’t take long to read. It briefly goes into the world that Jennifer has created for this series, including gargoyles and demons. 

Storyline/My Thoughts: I’ve read previous books from Jennifer, but I couldn’t wait to dive into this one due to the paranormal creatures that were in it. First, we have shifters that shift into gargoyles, and they go after demons. We have all kinds of demons that wreak havoc in the world. The gargoyles have to deal with sending the demons back to where they come from daily. In the meantime, the female gargoyles have to stay hidden and not be part of hunting dangers. In the case of Jasmine, she wants to explore more and not be locked away. Her one true love/best friend, Des, left her three years ago and now is back to claim her as his mate. Unfortunately, she’s not going to make it easy for him. She makes conditions to him before she makes her decision, and some of those decisions put her in harm’s way.

I could tell right away that Des still loved Jasmine, but it would take a lot of groveling to make up for the time he left. Des didn’t want to tell Jasmine right away why he left, but I could understand why he was hesitant to say to her when he did. Jasmine drove me crazy with the conditions she made for Des to decide if she would mate with him. After a while, it became predictable what she was going to choose.

I did like being introduced to some of the secondary characters in this book that will be the main characters in the next book. I couldn’t wait to read the rest of the series now, especially after being introduced to a particular demon.

This prequel receives four stars from me, and the only reason it didn’t get five stars was Jasmine and how she treated Des and how she treated a specific young character. I didn’t particularly appreciate how she treated this young character. I don’t want to give away the person, but she does get to be the series’s main character. Jasmine was very judgmental, and she realized it after she got to know the character. I liked how Jasmine finally realized how much Des cared for her, but she could’ve not put Des through so much trouble. She could have also listened to him, and she would not have got hurt. Overall, this prequel was a great start introducing the series.

Standalone or Part of Series: It’s a prequel to the Dark Elements series, but can be read as a standalone.

HEA: Yes

Trope: Arrange Relationship/Marriage/Mating; Friends-to-Lovers;

Would I recommend this book? Yes. I recommend this book to Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy readers out there. If you enjoy Jennifer L. Armentrout’s other paranormal books, then you’ll enjoy this series.

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About Jennifer L. Armentrout

# 1 New York Times and # 1 International Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Charles Town, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki. In early 2015, Jennifer was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of rare genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and death of cells in the retina, eventually resulting in loss of vision, among other complications. Due to this diagnosis, educating people on the varying degrees of blindness has become of passion of hers, right alongside writing, which she plans to do as long as she can.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Tor, HarperCollins Avon and William Morrow, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her Wicked Series has been optioned by PassionFlix. Jennifer has won numerous awards, including the 2013 Reviewers Choice Award for Wait for You, the 2015 Editor’s Pick for Fall With Me, and the 2014/2015 Moerser-Jugendbuch- Jury award for Obsidian. Her young adult romantic suspense novel DON’T LOOK BACK was a 2014 nominated Best in Young Adult Fiction by YALSA. Her adult romantic suspense novel TILL DEATH was a Amazon Editor’s Pick and iBook Book of the Month. Her young adult contemporary THE PROBLEM WITH FOREVER is a 2017 RITA Award Winner in Young Adult Fiction. She also writes Adult and New Adult contemporary and paranormal romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

She is the owner of ApollyCon and The Origin Event, the successful annual events that features over hundred bestselling authors in Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult Fiction, panels, parties, and more.

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FranJessca

Owner/Reviewer at A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog

I guess I should type a bio here. I'm FranJessca, or Fran for short. I'm the owner/reviewer behind A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog. I've been reading and reviewing books on my blog since leaving the Navy in 2011, and I will keep doing it as long as possible. My favorite genres will always be Romance & Fantasy, and I read every subgenre underneath those two genres. (Sorry, not a fan of nonfiction, so don't try to convince me to read it.)
My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)

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